This invention relates generally to two-way mailers adapted to forward a bill to a customer and for the customer to return payment to the company sending the bill, and more particularly to a two-way mailer in the form of a pack having three superposed sheets which not only define the forwarding and return envelopes but also the bill and two distinct records of the billing transaction.
In order for a large company such as a telephone company, an electric power utility or a large department store having many branches, or for that matter any other commercial facility which sells goods or renders services to a multiplicity of customers, to bill each customer on a monthly or other periodic basis, it is the usual billing practice to enclose each bill in a forwarding envelope addressed to the customer. Also inserted in this envelope is a return envelope for payment as well as advertising folders and other types of material relating to the company's business. The customer receiving this pack is expected to send back his payment check and the record section of the bill in the return envelope.
While the preparation of bills for customers and the addressing of the forwarding envelopes are generally carried out by high-speed computer techniques, it has heretofore been necessary to employ special machines for stuffing the forwarding envelope. This is not only a time consuming and costly operation, but because of machine or human error it gives rise to troublesome mistakes. One may, however, minimize the possibility of inserting a bill for one customer in an envelope addressed to another customer by printing his address on the bill itself and inserting the bill with the address exposed in a window-type envelope. But such envelopes are more costly than ordinary envelopes and machine insertion is still required.
In order to avoid the need for separate forwarding and return envelopes, it is known to provide convertible envelopes which carry out both functions, such as those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,759,658, 2,887,944, 3,184,150, and 3,111,336. But the making of envelopes of this type usually involves folding operations and cannot be carried out on a low-cost, continuous form basis. Moreover, it is still necessary with such envelopes to separately prepare and insert the bill. Also, the company receiving payment in the return envelope must then proceed to prepare records of the billing transaction.
Another characteristic of modern billing procedures which cannot be overlooked in this era of ecological sensitivity and conservation, is waste. With billing procedures currently practiced, the forwarding and return envelopes are discarded after use, since they no longer serve a useful purpose. Inasmuch as hundreds of millions of such envelopes are used every year by American corporations, the resultant waste has assumed astronomical proportions.